SALT HILLS

Low hills south of the city of Dullens. Several small salt lakes collect in the circle of these hills and a profitable salt mine is in operation. The "mine" actually consists of large flat troughs in which lake water is poured and left to evaporate. Salt cakes thus formed are broken up and shipped by mule on the Great Eastern Trade Route where they are sold to the Delarquan Federation, and northward to Khalani and Chimlevtal and other Free Cities. Until the discovery of the crystalfire mine, salt was the primary export of Dullens.

SAMARRA A'LYIIA REHINDA

Wife of Prince Zarhed of Jurine. Previously married to King Mickael of the Andorian League. She bore Mickael three children in 501: Mickael IV, Vraal, and Leina. After his death in 504, she married Prince Zarhed. When Mickael showed up still living (or living again), he and Samarra were divorced.

Samarra was born in Ardivent to the Baron and Baroness Rehinda. She lived most of her early life there. She was the sixth of seven children (brothers: T'yrian, Vriil, T'rryil, and Gionn, sisters: Syrria and Aylain). From her brother T'yrian, she learned to handle a sword, ride, swim, sail, and dance.

She is a lady to the bone. She is of a friendly and sunny disposition. Though she has lately been forced to be somewhat cynical, she likes to believe the best of people and is shocked if they show unpleasant qualities. She is quite generous, but does not always show good judgment in her generosity.

Samarra is 5'1', very delicate and petite, fine-boned. She has a fine figure and is sexy whether she wants to be or not. She has an oval face and rosy complexion. She has large blue eyes and long, thick black hair which she usually wears in a braid. Her ears are slightly pointed, betraying her elven ancestry. She usually wears high-necked dresses with flowing skirts and sleeves, most often in deep blue, more occasionally in black or red.

She is quite accomplished and enjoys writing, calligraphy, needlepoint of various kinds, embroidery, dancing, plays zither and lyre, singing, language study, theology, history, music theory, and philosophy.

SELNAGA, The River

Selnaga, a major river in southern Alastari, rising in the hills between Rocanis and Morya. Its volume of flow is dependent on the amount of rainfall in that area and varies widely at some seasons. The Selnaga is navigable by keelboats and small sail-powered packets from its mouth at Marveni on the Trier to Jhans. Beyond Jhans, it is sometimes navigable by keelboats as far as Rocanis, but sometimes carries too little water.

SELWIN, The River

The major tributary of the River Selnaga.

SELWIN TRACE

A trade route passing through Trocar, Jhans, and Jhelum, and joining with the Great Eastern Road at Sibikhas.

SERVA PIRATES

A group of mercenary corsairs first recruited by the Frafrejan Emperor to aid Fratsfa in its war with the Shewish Giants. Later granted land by the Emperor, the Serva Pirates eventually conquered much of the northeastern seaboard. Eventually the Serva were themselves conquered by the Karnhorn Priests, a group from their own homeland of Serevada, and their kingdom became the Karnhorn Empire.

SHADOWBOURN

The largest river in Aruak. Zorpunt is located at its mouth.

SHAGORNAN DESERT

The large desert grasslands to the south of Alastari.

SHEILA GREYWAND

AKA Lady of the Ice Garden, Witch of the Northern Waste, High Wizard of Glacks Island, Lady of the Fire, the Enchantress, etc. Her original given name seems to have been Shei-la ti Tarl n'Tarlanai (Shei-la, daughter of Tarl of the clan Tarlanai. This is conjecture based on research into archaic forms of pre-Empire Adantri nomenclature.)

Sheila is a powerful enchantress and can appear just about any way she chooses; however, her original appearance is that of a tall (5'11" or thereabouts) statuesque woman with long, straight, raven black hair. She has black eyes and an olive complexion. She has a strong-boned face with wide cheekbones, a strong jaw, and a long, straight nose; at one time she had the typical orckish fang-like canine teeth, but at some point she got rid of them and now appears more "human." She is striking rather than beautiful.

Sheila seems to enjoy changing her appearance for the hell of it, so feel free to describe her in any way that fits the mood of the story you're writing. Prefers long, flowing gowns, but will dress to fit the occasion. Not overly formal; she may be found in simple peasant skirts on many occasions.

Sheila maintains an (outward, at least) appearance of extremely high morals, because it is good for her image. She is extremely sure of herself, and believes that her ends justify any means. She can be quite ruthless, but does not indulge in wanton cruelty. She is devoted to the protection of Alastari and may consider anyone or anything (including the Alastarians) which gets in the way of her mission an enemy. In a fight, she favors nasty, morale-destroying battle spells, such as the one where your eyeballs explode. She carries no conventional weapons. She may have any number of magical ones on hand, but her own powers are generally sufficient.

Sheila was born in the city of Ni Kuoto in what would later become the Empire of Lirith Kai. The city has long since fallen to ruins, but the Adantri government maintains a small shrine as a tourist attraction, and tours of the ruins are conducted weekly for interested parties.

Always a bold, charismatic, and decisive woman, long life and hard knocks have taught her how to achieve her ends by subtlety as well as force. Sheila can appear mysterious, manipulative, and unfathomable. She often acts in ways that can only be described as flaky, but whether this is due to whim, senility, or some deep dark plot is impossible to determine. Most of the time one can assume that she is very intelligent, very devious, and very much in command of the situation, whatever it may be. Sheila seems to get a positive kick out of being mysterious and confusing. She will often let people believe that they have gotten the best of her, knowing very well that in five years...or five hundred...she'll still get exactly what she wants. She knows when to stop intriguing and bring out the big stick, as well.

Sheila can be quite personable, charming and informal; on the other hand, she can be as chilly and remote as a Vithicaran glacier when crossed. People who cross Sheila Greywand tend to meet untimely, messy ends, though she would never be so crude as to order anyone killed outright. Fame, fortune and flattery do not sway her ultimate decisions, though she is perfectly willing to enjoy all of them as incidental rewards of her position. She has a deep and sincere commitment to her vow to protect the lands of Alastari, and almost everything she does is towards that end. Pledged to protect Alastari as a whole, she does not favor any of the current kingdoms or governments over another.

Her strengths include a net of well-placed informers, spies, people who owe her favors, being filthy rich, indirect control of all the arenas and the warriors thereof, and being the most powerful sorceress in Alastari and possibly all of Ghea. Weaknesses include occasional impulsiveness, a hot temper and a tendency to hold grudges. She can sometimes be swayed by a lingering fondness for an old lover or friend.

Sheila was born almost fifty-five hundred years ago to Elsa of Glacks Island and Tarl Itu-Iama Chenra of Golden Lotus Hill, a minor prince of the soon-to-be-great Empire of Lirith Kai, whom Elsa "bought" with a favor owed to her own mother, Elna, by Tarl's father. Elsa herself was the daughter of the elf-warrior Egin Greenhill and his one-time arch-rival and later lover Elna No-Clan, the orc woman who was Hrufra the Butcher's greatest general and assassin. Tarl and Elsa's match was an unhappy one; their first child, Tarl the Younger, showed his orkish ancestry in his appearance and was rejected by his father, who referred to him as "the Monster." Upon learning that his wife was pregnant again, he insisted that the child was not his, and when Elsa went into labor Tarl went mad, slaying his wife, several of her servants and midwives and gravely injuring his son, who attempted to stop him.

Elsa's child survived; the young Sheila was sent north to Glacks Island and raised by her grandparents. Tarl was taken in by Hurfra and the karragit general, Elna's mentor and former almost-conqueror of Alastari; he settled down on Glacks, grew up, married a nice orkish woman, had a passel of kids and lived happily ever after. Sheila's life was not destined to be so simple. When she came of age, Sheila was sent to her grandfather's elven community to study magic. She quickly showed astonishing aptitude, and in the next few hundred years her adventures formed the basis for many a bard's tale. Arrogant in her power, she did something (modern-day scribes are not certain what, for few records survive from those days) which angered the gods themselves. For some time the name of Sheila drops from history altogether. It is rumored that her current devotion to the protection of Alastari is some sort of penance for her long-ago transgression. Be that as it may, around thirty-five hundred years ago her name begins showing up again in the historical record (an admittedly spotty historical record. There is some debate on whether or not Sheila Greywand is the same Sheila as the one born to Tarl and Elsa; Sheila herself is no help on the matter, confirming or denying the connection depending on how she feels that day.) In any case, Sheila is recorded as having lived in the Mossmist Forest during the time of the Folstrom Wars, and of having some connection with the highelven wizards whose research eventually broke the Folstrom's control over the dragons.

Her history between then and now is the subject of legend, debate, rumor and very little hard fact. All that is known for certain is that over the centuries she mastered every form of magic known in Alastari, traveled to other worlds and dimensions, and eventually raised a fortress and a school of wizardry on the Isle of the Eye.

Sheila has few true friends. She has picked up more incidental enemies than a dog has fleas. Her problems are the usual ones suffered by anyone trying to control several dozen unruly city-states from behind the scenes, and she rarely has time for hobbies.

She has no close relatives, but has numerous very distant ones, descendants of her brother Tarl, her father's and mother's siblings, etc.--assorted extremely distant nephews, nieces and cousins many, many times removed. Timmy the Spy is an example. She has outlived almost all of even her highelven relations of her own generation and the several after it.

Sheila has no known children, and there has never been a record of her marrying, though she has had numerous lovers. Some say that Sheila has been romantically linked to this or that of the few more accessible gods (Mantor the Bright, according to one source.) Other known ex-lovers are Keel Woodhaven, one of the Primus spyreporters; Taliesin, a manager; and the Puppetmaster, one of the teachers at the Academy of the Eye who also manages. She is not involved with anyone currently and seems to be going through a "love stinks" celibate phase.

Contrary to common belief, Sheila's major arcane might is not in the Grey Wand. In fact she would be stronger without the wand than with it. The wand is a chaos artifact. (That is, it was brought to Alastari through a Chaos Gate from some alien dimension.) With the wand she can enhance her control of the various dimensional gates which dot Alastari, and she can cast simple, flashy magics. The wand must be fairly constantly discharged or it becomes more difficult to control. Currently she uses it to power the resurrection spells for the advanced arenas as well as maintaining the seals on the Gates. Sheila spends a fair amount of her time and magic and energy maintaining control of the wand, which tends to warp people to its will. Exactly what it would do to someone it had warped is not known, as Sheila is not fond of lending it out. It was stolen at one point by some Dark Lords (which of the several groups of Dark Lords infesting Alastari was never discovered) but they were apparently unable to divine its secrets. However, the wand, as useful as it is in helping her to control the various gates which lead to Ghea, is more bother than it is worth, and as soon as Sheila is certain that one of her warriors can match the mind-bending will within the wand, and fight well enough to defend it from those who would try to take it, she intends to send that warrior to a non-magical world where they will be able to destroy the wand.

In the past few years, Sheila has begun to put her ultimate plan for the arenas into action, removing the seals on various Chaos Gates and sending Lord Protectors into the Gates to be guards and scouts. Besides the most publicized of these expeditions, the Gateway Arena, numerous Lord Protectors have been sent alone into smaller, less dangerous gates. Many of the Lord Protectors no longer active in the arena are actually off on "Gate duty."

SHEWISH GIANTS

Shews are large humanoids, normally ranging from seven to eight feet in height, though a few individuals may be as tall as nine feet. Save for their size they are virtually identical to humans. At one time the Shews ruled most of northern and central Alastari, but three or four hundred years ago they and the emerging Frafrejan Empire got into a long war which, among other things, reduced the Shews to a primitive, forest-dwelling people. Shews inhabit the Shewish Forest; most of the cities in northeastern Alastari have a sizable Shewish population and there has been considerable interbreeding. The Shewish language and culture is slowly disappearing; in most places the Shews speak human languages and follow human customs. There are still a few small tribes dwelling in the heart of the forest which cling to old customs, but they are small and growing smaller.

Each Dark Arena traditionally hires a Shewish Giant; this agreement was made by the father of the current Lord Malcorn.

SHYKAR

A small, rectangular gold coin of Lirith Kai, worth about fifty Delarquan astrums; stamped with Adantri script saying, "To fight--To die," on one side and a swimming shark on the other.

SKAITHVARN

Or SKAITHVARN PENINSULA. One of the kingdoms to the west, across the Trier Sea. Its inhabitants are mainly human, and noted for their talent in the area of magic. It is possible that Skaithvarn is the site of the old kingdoms of Avalun and Cundi.

SKARTARIN RIVER

A large river in the Andorian League, north of Caer.

SOYENJ

High-placed member of the Andorian Assassins' Guild, head of the department called The King's Shield. Soyenj (possibly not his real name) is a Convincian, very ordinary-looking: brown hair thin on top, hazel eyes, unremarkable figure and features, dresses in good but ordinary clothing. He is about 45 and unmarried. He lives for his job and is totally loyal to the office of the king, rather than to the particular man who happens to occupy that office. Second only to that, he is loyal to the Guild, and he would do anything except harm or allow harm to come to the king to further the interests of the Guild.

STORM SEA

The large freshwater lake to the east of Alastari. The Storm Sea is the result of glacial runoff.

SWORD AND FLAIL (CROSSED)

The symbol of Kjarran and His priests. Used heavily in the Karnhorn Empire on buildings, currency, and religious jewelry. In their most sacred appearance, they are held across the chest of the god by His lower two arms.

SYRINWALD

Sometimes referred to as the Shadowed Forest, the Syrinwald is a depressed area of land located between the Hills of the Osksi Empire and the fertile forested lands of the Ardiventi Barony. Often called a swamp, the Syrinwald, especially the southern half, is more accurately a bayou. It is dark and dank, filled with quick death for the uninitiated. Quicksand, poisoned ponds, aggressive reptiles, and the scores of diseases one might encounter are only slightly less dangerous than the sentient beings which call the area home.

The Syrinwald is divided both geographically and politically by the slow moving Feyranse River which drains the mist covered Shadow Lake into Skybreak Bay. The north is somewhat drier with ranges of tree covered hills pushing out of the soggy lowlands. Over the decades, the Mordanti have been fairly successful in pacifying the local flora and fauna and today the Feyranse is a major trade route. However in the south, wild things still roam. The crafty Nianians, who call this deep bayou home, are perfectly content with the symbiotic relationship they have with the karragit tribes inhabiting the area. The human inhabitants of the Syrinwald, mostly of Mordanti descent, are banded together into an alliance known as the Mordanti Confederation. While the alliance puts up a good show for outsides, disagreements between individual cities are frequent and often bloody.